War of the dons

The attempt on the life of underworld don Chhota Rajan in Bangkok intensifies his rivalry with Dawood Ibrahim. The communal tone of their war and the alleged involvement of the ISI are likely to lead to a bloodbath back home.

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino would have been proud. A dark alley on a moonlit night. A secluded apartment block, Charan Court, at an upmarket diplomatic enclave in the Soi 26, Sukhumvit area in Bangkok. It's past dinner time, 9.30 p.m. on Thursday, September 14, to be precise.

Eight gunmen owing allegiance to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, togged in jet black suits and patent leathers, arrive at the gate, two of them, Thai nationals, carrying a huge cake provide cultural colour and a facade for the others. The Thai security guard barely lets them in only to be knocked out of his senses.

The gunmen rush upstairs and ring the bell. A couple and a child are watching TV in the living room. They peer through, the cake-bearing Thais lure the doors open. The next minute, the gunmen enter the four bedroom apartment whip out their 9 mm pistols and open fire.

First to fall is Rohit Verma or Michael D'Souza, as he was known in Bangkok. His wife Sangeeta rushes in to save him and takes a bullet. Horrorstruck, maid Kamala slinks to the kitchen door.

The assailants' eyes dart around the house but the prey they actually seek is nowhere to be seen. Pushing the Verma couple aside they scour the apartment for him. Suddenly in the dark they see the silhouette of a figure jumping off a bedroom balcony into a garden below. Blind volley of shots follow the figure. But this wasn't Pulp Fiction. The prey escapes with one bullet in his abdomen and another in his right thigh.

Chhota Rajan

Even as other residents of the quiet Sukhumvit area wake up, the man stays put until he hears the failed gunmen leave. Going back to the house, he finds Verma dead and the wife injured. He moves to the bedroom and picks up the phone and dials. On the other end his close aide Guru Satam hears a rasping voice whispers, "Mi Rajan boltoi."

In the next few minutes Chhota Rajan makes three more calls. The last to the Thai Police. Minutes later, a posse arrives and takes charge. Rajan is wheeled into the Samitivej Hospital's ICU for emergency surgery. Within hours, the shots echo 2,923 km away in Delhi where officials at the Home Ministry discuss the ramifications even as officers of the Crime Branch scramble numbers to verify the news.

The following evening, 3,004 km from Bangkok the issue crops up again at a dinner meeting on Friday at Matoshri in Bandra, suburban Mumbai, between Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley.

THE DONDAWOOD IBRAHIM KASKARBase: Karachi, Pakistan Wanted in: 17 casesAbsconding from India since 1991, he ran the show from Dubai till 1993. After the Mumbai serial blasts, he moved to Pakistan. Activities range from construction, narcotics and gold smuggling, extortion to gun-running. Also helps recruit ISI operatives for India.

THE LIEUTENANTSCHHOTA SHAKEELBase: Karachi, Pakistan Wanted in: 30 casesControls Mumbai. Is said to have planned the attack on Rajan. Absconding since 1998, he shuttles between Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia and Australia.'ABU SALEM' ABDUL QAYUM ANSARIBase: South Africa Wanted in: 34 casesThe man behind extortion threats to filmstars and the murder of Gulshan Kumar. Fled India in 1996 and now operates from Africa.

OTHER CRONIESFAZLU: Coordinates the activities of the D Company in India from Dubai.KAYUB: Dubai-based key henchman of Dawood.ALI BUDESH: Based in Bahrain, he specialises in extortion. Works with Abu Salem.

By Monday, Rajan was declared out of danger and the Thai Police had arrested four suspects. Of them, Mohammed Saleem, 33, and Sher Khan, 36, who admitted to being the shooters in the attack were caught at the Robinson departmental store in Bang Rak while Mohammed Yusuf, 45, was arrested as he tried to evade the police on Sukhumvit Soi 5.

Their Thai accomplice, Chavalit a.k.a. Rafiq Aroonkiat, 51, was picked up from a flat in Intamara Soi. Four others involved in the attack fled to Malaysia by a Singapore Airlines flight the same night.

But the legacy of the shoot-out continues to dog the script. A script that was written over six years back when Rajan walked out after the serial blasts in Mumbai masterminded by Dawood.

Since then the Rajan vs Dawood battle has become a sideshow, albeit a bloody one, of the proxy war being waged between India and Pakistan.

As R.H. Mendonca, now DG (ACB) Maharashtra Police and former commissioner, Mumbai, puts it, "It is no longer a battle between criminal gangs. It is much larger and there is a clear involvement of elements from outside the country inimical to national interest."

The immediate provocation for the attack was the busting of a fake US dollar currency racket run by Dawood's aides by the Interpol and a US agency in December 1999. It led to the arrest of two of Dawood's influential agents in Thailand. Next Rajan's people exposed Akbar Sha, a key associate of Dawood. Sha, a Pakistani drug trafficker, was killed in a police encounter.

Since December Dawood's men have been tracking Rajan's movements with information dredged out of Mumbai's underworld. Rajan has subsequently been spotted among other places in Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

But the decision to pin him down in Bangkok came after men belonging to the Chhota Shakeel faction found that Verma had set up shop along with a Thai national dealing in ceramics in downtown Bangkok. On August 31, the first batch of operatives arrived from Karachi with clear instructions: bring Rajan to Karachi or eliminate him.

RAJAN COMPANY

THE DONCHHOTA RAJAN a.k.a. RAJENDRA SADASHIV NIKHALJEBase: Malaysia, Australia Wanted in: 20 cases Once a close aide of Dawood, now his biggest enemy. Helped Dawood establish his underworld empire but broke away after the Mumbai blasts. By going after the blasts accused, Rajan has positioned himself as a "Hindu don" and has established links with Indian agencies.

THE LIEUTENANTSGURUNATH a.k.a. GURU NARHARI SATAMBase: Malaysia, Mumbai A trusted aide of Rajan, the first man whom the don called after the attack. Gurunath is known for his quicksilver temper and organisational skills.ROHIT VERMA R.I.P. One of the flashiest aides of Rajan, Verma specialised in networking and managing moolah transfers. He was killed in the September 14 attack.O.P. SINGHBase: India and Nepal O.P. Singh is known for his careful planning and methodical approach. Also has indepth knowledge of the underworld networks.

Saleem, who came in the first batch with three others, used local help to comb Bangkok. Within days, Verma, known for his rather flashy lifestyle, was spotted and his residence located.

Now four more shooters arrived from Karachi. On September 11, the team of 10 (four Pakistanis, four Indians and two Thais) hired an apartment at Amree Court adjacent to Charan Court where Verma had rented a flat under the assumed name of Michael D'Souza.

The conspirators even found a flat that overlooked the front gate of Charan Court enabling them to keep a close watch on their quarry. Apparently, they waited a couple of days for the right opportunity before striking.

And when they did strike, the fierce attack in which close to 100 rounds were fired, stunned even the Thai police.

As Colonel Manthan Apaivongs, superintendent of Thanglore police station and main investigation officer, said, "It seems the gang war in the Indian subcontinent has extended to Bangkok. We have never seen such a case of vengeance and retaliation. It is more than mere business or gang rivalry."

The meticulous planning suggests the very forces that organised the blasts of 1993 backed Dawood's attempt in Bangkok. Ergo, if there were people concerned in Delhi and Mumbai it had little to do with the oft quoted "Hindu Don vs Muslim Don" factor. Partly the worry would be the emergence of a unipolar underworld.

OTHER GANGSTERS

Arun Gawli: Onetime Dawood friend, Gawli ran a booming extortion racket in Mumbai and is alleged to have planned the killing of several businessmen. Externed from Mumbai, Gawli lives near Pune.Amar Naik: Specialised in extortion and was responsible for the killing of industrialist Sunit Khatau in 1994. Naik was killed in a police encounter in 1996.Ashwin Naik: Brother of Amar Naik, he took over his operations and sought to avenge his killing. Now in jail facing trial.Subhash Singh Thakur: Once a planner and shooter for the D Company, he now runs an extortion racket. In jail for his role in the J.J. Hospital shootout.Shyam Kishore Garikapatti: Introduced the concept of outsourcing to the underworld. Was involved in the Rakesh Roshan shootout and is currently in jail.

But there is a bigger worry. Ever since the serial bomb blasts there has been little doubt that Dawood is working closely with the ISI. Dawood's network is being utilised by the ISI to recruit people and to foment trouble in India.

Strategically, as of now, it is only Rajan who is in a position to challenge him. Indeed, the biggest blow to the ISI in recent years, the elimination of Nepalese MP Mirza Dilshad Beg, is seen as the handiwork of Rajan's network. So were at least eight unsuccessful attempts on Dawood's life.

The theory that Rajan is being treated with kid gloves by the Indian authorities to neutralise Dawood is not entirely baseless.

Three months back - in July - the Australian police tipped off the Mumbai Police of the presence of Rajan in Melbourne. Although a red corner notice has been with the Interpol since 1994, the Mumbai Police still sent 17 open warrants for his arrest.

Chhagan Bhujbal, deputy chief minister in charge of home, confirms that the papers were indeed sent "to CBI in Delhi which is the nodal agency dealing with the Interpol". But the arrest never took place. Even the recent shoot-out and Rajan's hospitalisation present an opportunity.

Arun Gawli

The Thai Police revealed that Rajan had more than one passport. While he was staying in Bangkok as Vijay Ramakrishna Kadam, he had passports in his own name, Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje, another in the name of Lipendra Ailib from Lucknow. All it would take is for the Indian mission to notify the local authorities that he is a wanted man.

Whether it does or not is in the realm of the possible. But the fact is the murder attempt has actually generated a sort of latent sympathy for Rajan in middle-class Mumbai. As a senior police officer points out, "It is perhaps unfortunate but there is a feeling among some youth and even business people that a Hindu don is required."

What the officer doesn't say is that in the perverted logic of the criminal universe, if Dawood's gang uses jehad to cloak its activities, Rajan too now has acquired a "nationalistic hue". In Mumbai, Verma's mother claimed her son was "a deshbhakt.

GORY END: The attackers had closely watched the movements of Chhota Rajan and Rohit Verma for several days before they moved in for the kill on September 14

For the moment Rajan has been shifted out of Samitivej Hospital to a safe house - but it's Mumbai that is worried about its safety. Over the past few years through the tenure of Mendonca and now Police Commissioner M.N. Singh, the police has used a clear strategy to take on the underworld: "Target the shooters and the persons who supply arms."

The strategy has paid off. In fact, after the killing of Amar Naik in 1996, most mafia figures have left India. But this peace seems fragile now. There is apprehension that Rajan's gang will retaliate and will do so without losing time.

Indeed, in Bangkok, Rajan's aide Santosh Shetty asserts, "They have broken the rules of not targeting women and children. We won't be sitting quiet for sure.

Big Guns: Sher Khan and Mohammed Saleem in Police Custody

The Mumbai Police though is unruffled D. Sivanandhan, joint commissioner in charge of the Crime Branch, dismisses the possibility of an escalation in gang wars. "I don't believe there is anything for the people to fear. But we are clear. If they come on the streets, they will not be spared." Bhujbal agrees. "To start with we have no sympathy for either group. If they are targeting each other nobody should lose any sleep. But if it comes on the streets nobody will be spared."

Given the track record of the police in containing the underworld after the troubled, extortion-ridden months of September and October 1997, the confident words should afford some comfort to the people of Mumbai.

"For how long?" is thus the new poser. After all the script is far from over. As with Pulp Fiction, the shoot-out could be just the end of another chapter. Somewhere between Karachi and Bangkok, the next episode is being scripted for sure.

1989: Dawood tries to semi-legitimise empire by investing in South Africa and west Asia through BCCI. Bank later collapses.1991: Targeted by the Mumbai Police, Dawood has fled to Dubai. Assisted by Chhota Rajan and Anna Shetty he maintains a great social profile. Flourishes.

1992: The Babri Masjid demolition divides the Mumbai underworld along religious lines. Riots in Mumbai. Dawood is under community pressure to "act".1993: Dawood executes bomb blasts in Mumbai. Rajan charges Dawood with communalism and leaves him. The war begins. Rajan vows to kill bomb blast guilty. Goes after them.Today, of the 17 murder charges he faces, 12 are of bomb blast conspirators.